St. Thomas students build public transit communications campaign

Author

Carl Nelson

Contributors

Marshall Curry, Maria E. Dahmus, Kelly Morrell

Metrics

Community

Metro Transit, St. Paul, MN

Community Size

733,098 (2018 Census Estimation)

University

University of St. Thomas

Program

Sustainable Communities Partnership

Years

2017/2018

Status

Completed

Case Type

Project Stories

School Size

Greater than 5000

Focus Areas

Economic and Social Inclusion

Discipline

Marketing

Region

EPA Region 5, USA

Metro Transit understands young adults exposed to reliable, useful transit are more likely to become lifelong riders. When they graduate, they may look for homes and jobs with high transit accessibility and reduce car reliance. With this high long-term potential benefit, Metro Transit actively promotes its services to college and university students.

In partnership with the Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP), Metro Transit worked with two courses to promote its services to college students, Principles of Strategic Communication and Writing for Strategic Communications. Working in teams, the two classes created marketing campaigns targeted towards a student demographic for a particular bus, BRT, or light rail line and generated a range of branded content.

Participating students developed “See Your City,” a campaign promoting Metro Transit Route 87. The bus route runs through a vibrant region of the Twin Cities, providing easy, inexpensive access to “authentic restaurants, lively coffee shops, and other entertainment venues” (Report). Students produced print ads, billboard concepts, a radio ad, and a video to promote the campaign. They also organized an on-campus information booth offering maps, schedules, and handouts complete with creative suggestions for local transit-accessible activities.

This project challenged students to apply their strategic communication education in the name of a critical cause. The resulting promotional campaign contributed to a culture of sustainability which is growing among students on St. Thomas’ campus and in the greater Twin Cities region.